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Joe's Crab Shack Testing No Tipping Policy

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Deadstar

Member
The no-tipping movement is picking up steam. Joe's Crab Shack is testing a no-tip model in several of its restaurants.

The casual seafood chain has eliminated gratuity in 18 establishments since August and could eventually expand the policy nationwide.

Front-house workers at the selected restaurants will now earn hourly wages of around $12-$14 an hour, but some can earn more.

With more than 130 locations nationwide, this is the first major restaurant chain to put a no-tipping system to the test.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/11/pf/joes-crab-shack-no-tipping/index.html

Menu prices are to be increased by 12-15% and it sounds great to me as I normally give a 20% tip.
 
Tipping culture won't go down without a fight. I can imagine a scenario where a customer asks for a drink refill and after 5 minutes the waiter still hasn't come back to refill his glass and he says "I bet she hasn't come back because she's not working for a tip so there's no motivation"
 

Tagyhag

Member
Employees get non-minimum wage (For the time being) and if we usually tip 20% we get to pay less? Sounds like a win/win.
 

dubc35

Member
Ivar's (local seafood restaurant) started no tipping when the $15/hr passed here. Some people (40%) still tip, lol. [edit] They also raised prices 21%

What if I still want to tip my server for doing an exceptional job?
You are welcome to tip your server at your discretion and he or she will receive the funds directly. However, this is not necessary, nor expected. Roughly, 40% of guests are leaving tips averaging between 3% and 10%.
http://www.ivars.com/press-room/item/403-minimum-wage
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Good idea, might encourage some people to eat out more if they only have to worry about the food bill and not an additional 20%-30% more. I hope it works out for them.
 

Kemal86

Member
Kinda wish there was one close to me. I'd go eat there just to support this. Tipping needs to go, and all workers need to have a guaranteed (and reasonable) income.
 

UFO

Banned
all workers need to have a guaranteed (and reasonable) income.

All the waiters ive known have said they made great money off tipping. Im sure it varies place to place, but i dont see the big deal about it.

What really needs to go away is tipping for food delivery. People tip like shit and it costs alot more for has and wear and tear then waiterd have to deal with.
 

kirblar

Member
All the waiters ive known have said they made great money off tipping. Im sure it varies place to place, but i dont see the big deal about it.

What really needs to go away is tipping for food delivery. People tip like shit and it costs alot more for has and wear and tear then waiterd have to deal with.
The current system is great for the front-end staff and very bad for the back-end staff.
 
I'm a server at Joe's Crab Shack and this would be a significant pay cut for me if it were implemented. I've already begun looking for a new job.

They aren't even doing this at my restaurant and now nobody is tipping.

I won't be able to pay my bills this month. Hope the utilities don't get cut off.
 

NH Apache

Banned
I'm a server at Joe's Crab Shack and this would be a significant pay cut for me if it were implemented. I've already begun looking for a new job.

They aren't even doing this at my restaurant and now nobody is tipping.

I won't be able to pay my bills this month. Hope the utilities don't get cut off.

That sucks. I remember when I worked there it was tough. Although I avoided doing the car wash by running food instead.

This issue always interests me as the people who typically don't want this the most are the servers themselves.
 
That sucks. I remember when I worked there it was tough. Although I avoided doing the car wash by running food instead.

It actually isn't that bad of a place to work, although I'm sure that will change. Can't believe the company isn't trying to clarify that not all restaurants are testing this. I know that most companies value their employees very little but this is extremely upsetting.
 

BamfMeat

Member
I'm a server at Joe's Crab Shack and this would be a significant pay cut for me if it were implemented. I've already begun looking for a new job.

Just curious but how do you know it'll be a pay cut if you haven't actually had the change implemented yet? I mean, I get that people aren't tipping anymore and that's a different story but how do you figure the impact on you? Have you guys been told the pay you'll be getting already?

Also, what would you do/plan to do if all restaurants went to this model in the US?
 

NH Apache

Banned
It actually isn't that bad of a place to work, although I'm sure that will change. Can't believe the company isn't trying to clarify that not all restaurants are testing this. I know that most companies value their employees very little but this is extremely upsetting.

It's still a subset of Landry's right? After Katrina destroyed the one here in NOLA, they sent me a check every week for 8 weeks for 400 bucks which really helped. The company is great to work for.

I just didn't enjoy dancing.
 
Interested to see the outcome of this.

Also, a little OT: Does this place smother their seafood in spicy sauce like Boiling Crab does? I've always wondered.
 
Just curious but how do you know it'll be a pay cut if you haven't actually had the change implemented yet? I mean, I get that people aren't tipping anymore and that's a different story but how do you figure the impact on you? Have you guys been told the pay you'll be getting already?

Also, what would you do/plan to do if all restaurants went to this model in the US?

People aren't tipping anymore. Its really hard to look at this in any kind of positive light.

I wasted all that time in college and can't get a job in my field now I can't even have a serving job. I'm at the end of my rope. Really hard to see a light at the end of this tunnel.
 

MIMIC

Banned
Cool. The prices get bumped up anyway.

Never been there before, although I've always wanted to try them out.
 
People aren't tipping anymore. Its really hard to look at this in any kind of positive light.

I wasted all that time in college and can't get a job in my field now I can't even have a serving job. I'm at the end of my rope. Really hard to see a light at the end of this tunnel.

I guess the question is before when you got tips how much do you think you'd average an hour? With your base pay + tips was it greater then $14 an hour?
 

BamfMeat

Member
People aren't tipping anymore. Its really hard to look at this in any kind of positive light.

I wasted all that time in college and can't get a job in my field now I can't even have a serving job. I'm at the end of my rope. Really hard to see a light at the end of this tunnel.

I get that people aren't tipping anymore - that's a problem with the way it's being implemented where it's only certain places and not all of them. But you say because of this you'll lose money. My question is, are you only looking at it at this specific bump because people think they shouldn't be tipping you right now (when they should, mind you) or are you looking at it at the longer view and still saying that you're going to lose out on money after this goes full-steam throughout the chain?

As an aside, your situation is shit because people aren't tipping at all even though you haven't gotten the raise yet to what you should be making. But if they'd roll it out to the entire chain, you should actually be making about the same money after all is said and done, I would think.

Edit -
Yup.

Anti-tipping people tend to never see the downsides of tipping not being a thing. People who don't know what they're talking about, telling me that I'd be better off if tipping disappeared drives me up the fucking wall.

I stand corrected.

Also, a little OT: Does this place smother their seafood in spicy sauce like Boiling Crab does? I've always wondered.

They're completely different types of places. Boiling Crab is a boil-in-bag kinda place. Joe's Crab Shack is more what you'd find on the east coast with the bakes and such. I love them both but they're very different in the way they do their stuff.
 

Nose Master

Member
Will take a long time to actually get rid of tipping, but this is a good step. I'm still occasionally shocked that it's 100% legal to pay servers like dogshit because tipping is implied. Implied, but not at all mandatory.
 

Lost Fragment

Obsessed with 4chan
I'm a server at Joe's Crab Shack and this would be a significant pay cut for me if it were implemented. I've already begun looking for a new job.

They aren't even doing this at my restaurant and now nobody is tipping.

I won't be able to pay my bills this month. Hope the utilities don't get cut off.

Yup.

Anti-tipping people tend to never see the downsides of tipping not being a thing. People who don't know what they're talking about, telling me that I'd be better off if tipping disappeared drives me up the fucking wall.
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
Getting rid of tipping is not going to be to the monetary benefit of the average server.


Given the choice, I still don't see why you would want a 15-20% higher bill versus the choice to make the bill 15-20% higher and directly give money to a person who could really use it. And if they suck, save yourself some money.
 
Honestly I feel a mixture of both tipping and not tipping policies is ideal

Raise the wage of all restaurant staff to living wages ($12-15 an hour) and then if a server goes above and beyond give them a smaller tip to thank them for doing more then just the minimum required for their job and/or have tips go into a tip jar that is divded evenly among all staff that worked during each shift.
 
Yup.

Anti-tipping people tend to never see the downsides of tipping not being a thing. People who don't know what they're talking about, telling me that I'd be better off if tipping disappeared drives me up the fucking wall.

Wouldn't an increase in your salary offset not receiving tips?

Isn't that the point of tipping in the first place, that it makes up for the fact that you're being payed very lowly?

Pardon my ignorance, just trying to get a more informed perspective
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
Wouldn't an increase in your salary offset not receiving tips?

Isn't that the point of tipping in the first place, that it makes up for the fact that you're being payed very lowly?

Pardon my ignorance, just trying to get a more informed perspective


If a restaurant increases their menu prices by 15-20%, it is nearly guaranteed that at least some of that is not going to go into the servers pockets.

The increase in wages is unlikely to reach the level that servers make now with tips.
 

kirblar

Member
Wouldn't an increase in your salary offset not receiving tips?

Isn't that the point of tipping in the first place, that it makes up for the fact that you're being payed very lowly?

Pardon my ignorance, just trying to get a more informed perspective
Front end staff are going to take a hit. People saying otherwise are either under-informed, naive, or disingenuous. From an economic perspective, this is a good overall thing in terms of adjusting where money is flowing for businesses. But that doesn't mean that individuals won't get hit by negative changes.
 

LJ11

Member
Wouldn't an increase in your salary offset not receiving tips?

Isn't that the point of tipping in the first place, that it makes up for the fact that you're being payed very lowly?

Pardon my ignorance, just trying to get a more informed perspective

Depends on the kind of tips you make. Have several clients I consult with that have employees bringing in 1000-1500 in tips with a 40-50 hour work week. Will their pay increase that much to offset the removal of tips, hard to say. And that's the tips they declare, usually Credit Cards tips since they hit the bank, cash isn't reported for shit, very little of it is anyway. Most good restaurants deal with mostly CCs anyway.
 
If a restaurant increases their menu prices by 15-20%, it is nearly guaranteed that at least some of that is not going to go into the servers pockets.

The increase in wages is unlikely to reach the level that servers make now with tips.

ah I see, I imagined the prices would remain and the restaurant owner taking lower profit margins but I see now that wouldn't or might not happen

Front end staff are going to take a hit. People saying otherwise are either under-informed, naive, or disingenuous. From an economic perspective, this is a good overall thing in terms of adjusting where money is flowing for businesses. But that doesn't mean that individuals won't get hit by negative changes.

Interesting, could you elaborate further on the bolded bit.

Depends on the kind of tips you make. Have several clients I consult with that have employees bringing in 1000-1500 in tips with a 40-50 hour work week. Will their pay increase that much to offset the removal of tips, hard to say.

Good point, if I were to make an uneducated guess I would think that, no, if you're pulling in approx 1000$ a week it would be a slim chance a pay increase would cover losing that
 

muteki

Member
If a restaurant increases their menu prices by 15-20%, it is nearly guaranteed that at least some of that is not going to go into the servers pockets.

The increase in wages is unlikely to reach the level that servers make now with tips.

I like the idea behind the change but my extremely cynical worry is that restaurant prices will increase 25-30%, and the servers still won't make as much as before.
 
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